Taxonomy
Etymology
Coined around 1813 by the Swiss botanist Augustin Pyramus de Candolle, from Greek taxis, “arrangement, order,” + -nomia, “method, law” (from nomos, “law”). It first named the science of classifying living things, then broadened to any orderly system of categories.
noun · /tak-SON-uh-mee/
A systematic scheme for classifying things into ordered categories.
What it names
An ordered map of a domain — not a loose list but a structured classification showing how kinds nest inside larger kinds.
Example
Before fixing the bugs, they built a taxonomy of failures so they could see which kinds mattered most.
Related idea
A taxonomy sorts things into named groups; a hierarchy ranks them by level of authority or inclusion.